Chapter 16: Chapter 16: Ever After

“...And that’s why I’m a little shook today,” Lydia finished her story about the past weekend to Annika and Alexis, who both stared at her.

“I mean, it makes sense,” Alexis said, smiling sympathetically.

“So wait, you believe me?” Lydia asked.

“It definitely explains the sudden appearance of your 'sisters', now that you mention it,”  Annika agreed, "even if the excuse your parents are using about homeschooling is true."

 Lydia agreed, “Oh, and I know I told you this, but Cindy would be really upset with me if you told anyone. So please don’t. Ever.”

“Cross our hearts,” Annika and Alexis said in unison before giggling at each other.

“So um,” Lydia began as she shifted on her foot, “Annika, there’s something I’ve wanted to ask you since last Thursday.”

“I’m listening,” Annika replied, cocking her head at Lydia as she finished her tuna sandwich.

“Would you like to go on a date with me?” Lydia asked, bracing for a ‘no’.

“Seriously? Heck yeah!”

“R..really?”

“I mean, you’re not exactly subtle about how much you like me, Lydia, you’re like the definition of a disaster,” Annika replied, smirking.

“I am not,” Lydia hissed.

“Lydia, you are,” Alexis replied, smirking, “sorry to bring this up again, but one thing I can’t believe is that your transphobic dad is now your mom.”

“Why’s that hard to believe? I mean, I know, lesbian and all, but,” Lydia began.

“I mean, she is speaking at the school board meeting tonight about ‘the incident’, to be fair,” Annika said, “my parents talked about 'Diane's new lesbian lover' all night last night and were worried about what she might have to say.”

“Wait, my mom is…going to a school board meeting? There’s a school board meeting?” Lydia couldn’t remember that, even in her current memories.

“Jeez, you are sheltered,” Alexis replied, snorting, “email was sent out to all the parents last night. Your mom replied all.”

“Of course she did,” Lydia said as she facepalmed, “she works in tech and still can’t tell the difference between reply and reply all. What did she have to say?”

“Something about ‘my daughter will not be scrutinized for her affirming transformation, and I will personally ensure no other students are,’” Annika read off her phone.

“Well, that’s good, I guess,” Lydia sighed.

“Sorry, yeah, sounds rough,” Alexis said as she leaned into a hug, “I gotta go, catch you two lovebirds later.”

As she ran off, Annika turned to Lydia and grinned. “So, where do you wanna go?”

“Well, I’ve got my mom’s truck, we could go just about anywhere from here to Omaha,” Lydia replied.

“I hear there’s a haunted axe murder house in Villisca,” she offered, “I’m into spooky stuff, if you’re okay with that.”

“I…I don’t know how I feel about that on a first date. How about we just grab dinner somewhere or something? Joe’s is good for barbecue.”

“Joe’s works!” Annika said as she tossed her lunch stuff into the garbage, “but I still wanna go to Villisca.”

“There’s not even anything in Villisca.”

“You’ll be there, and that’s good enough for me,” Annika said as she pecked Lydia on the cheek and pranced off.

Lydia rubbed her cheek and blushed furiously, her tail whipping side to side excitedly. She had history with, oh God, Mr. Roberts. She remembered others complaining to the school about him for his behavior and nothing being done. She had always seen other girls put a sweater on in his class to avoid his, uh, visual intrusions.

She ran to her locker and put a large hoodie on. She remembered as she looked at it, hold on, she was still going to a Christian school, wasn’t she? Was her mother still Christian? She’d have to ask them about that later. She zipped the hoodie up and headed to class.

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As she entered the room, she noticed that it was suspiciously empty of the creepy teacher, students looking around and murmuring. Normally, he stayed in there during lunch. She shrugged and took her seat, people staring somewhat at her ears, as if to make a note that she was among the transformed in the class. She definitely noticed a few different faces, some with ears in different places, some with tails behind them, some she didn’t recognize but she was sure she’d find out about. It really felt…different.

An old woman with bifocals click-clacked into the room with her heels, stopping at the front of the room with her papers. “Hello students, Mr. Roberts will not be in today, as he’s come down with an illness over the weekend. He has prepared worksheets for you all online. Please take out your computers and begin work,” she said as she sat down at the chair at his desk.

The room became visibly less tense, and people started chatting with each other. Lydia breezed through the worksheet, which was as inane as it was bigoted, and began to work on her calculus. After a few minutes, someone nervously tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around to see Preston, looking from side to side as if to ensure nobody was watching.

“What?” she asked.

“Hey, um, that girl you were with at lunch. Was that Luther? Were you John?” he whispered into her ear.

“Yeah,” she replied, “she goes by Annika, I go by Lydia. What about it?”

“The spell can do that?” he whispered, his voice tinged with nervousness.

“Yeah,” she replied,  “happens to more people than you think.”

“...oh,” he said, looking at the floor contemplatively, “thank you.”

“No problem,” she replied, smiling as she turned around and got back to work.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The board meeting was packed to the brim with people wearing plaid and red baseball caps. Some were already holding signs, but not Dani. Dani was in a plain pantsuit, wearing her glasses with her hair up in a bun. Men would already think less of her, she knew, and women too, for being a lesbian. If she was going to speak up, especially after the accident with the email last night, she needed to be better than perfect.

“Thank you all for coming to this meeting tonight,” the superintendent spoke into the microphone, “I’m Superintendent VerBeek, for those of you not aware. We are here tonight to address a sudden phenomenon among the student body that appears to have been a result of an already-national phenomenon, instigated by a witch from Canada.”

Dani shifted a little at the thought that one person, who she had a very fateful and interesting meeting with less than a day beforehand, could be so important. That her wife, if she had heard from the other room correctly, had yelled at, no less. She tented her hands and rolled her shoulders to relieve some of the tension.

“Our school prides itself on Christian fellowship and charity,” he began, “but we know all too well that many fall short of all of God’s ideals. However, we find it imprudent to take action on so many students, especially when no cure for the witch’s spell has been found.”

The room burst out into outrage, parents screaming at VerBeek. Dani just smiled calmly and began to take notes. She was going to, at the very least, get this leaked to the press somewhere.

“I understand your concerns,” the Superintendent spoke, turning to one of his fellow board members as if for support, “I will field questions now.”

“Who the Hell do you think you are, allowing my kid to be influenced by these homos,” one woman in the back stood up and yelled, “they should all be ejected from the school.”

“Ma’am,” he said, sighing, “as I said, in any other instance, we would have taken decisive action. However, we cannot do that without violating state laws on attendance in this case, and even giving them until the end of the year and asking them to leave would rip many of these children, no doubt lost in the ways of sin, of their best hope at redemption.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t eject that Vanderlaan queer’s kid,” a man yelled, “and his father is a lesbian now!”

“Sir, we at this school believe the sins of the parents should not be passed onto the children. That child has done nothing out of line with school policy until today,” he replied, “I understand your concerns, but it appears the parent you refer to had no part in encouraging this behavior either.”

“My son came home today and said that girl told him that it can make you a girl,” the same voice replied, “ain’t no son of mine going to transgender.”

“And what would be wrong if he did?” Dani finally spoke, silencing the room as she stood to turn around and face him, “and how would you stop him?”

“I would use my ability to discipline that little queer, that’s what,” Preston’s father replied, staring daggers at her.

“I suppose that’s your right,” Dani replied, “but I can’t promise you won’t see swift action. Justice is hard to find in this world, but I believe the world does bend towards it, no matter the cruelty present beforehand.”

“Unlike you, I’ll fight against this agenda to my last breath. It’s what the Lord wants,” he spat, seething.

“And I’m not here to stop you,” she replied, smiling, “but as the Superintendent said, it seems like none of you can change anything about this. At all. Pass all the laws, eject all the students you like, you will still lose. If it can happen at this school, it can happen anywhere in this country.”

The room remained silent before the Superintendent returned to the microphone. “Thank you, Mrs. Vanderlaan-Smith, if you would please sit down.”

“Of course, Mr. VerBeek,” she replied, ignoring the glares piercing her from all directions. Whatever the policy turned out to be, Dani knew, in that moment, that she had won, and her daughter had won. That being said, while she had the new memories Cindy had given her, it was obvious the people here did remember who she once was. 

She wasn't sure whether to be grateful or upset. She'd have to do something about the girls' schooling, and wasn't sure this town was the best place for it. Certainly, they had been given the resources to leave, or to stay if they really wanted to. But she wasn't so sure she really wanted anything to do with this heroism. If they moved, she knew she'd have to take Lydia away from her friends. But as she took one last look around the room, she knew that was perhaps her only option.

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